Series 1 (2011)

The series follows the plight of Ra'nell as he navigates the pitfalls of living on the crime-filled Summerhouse estate after his mother, Lisa, is admitted to a mental hospital. Ra'Nell, who has gained a reputation around the estate for his volatile behaviour after stabbing his abusive father, is quiet and closed off. While his mother is in hospital, he is cared for by her close friend, Leon, who was once a respected enforcer of the estate but has since put his past behind him. Meanwhile, Lisa's friend Heather enlists Ra'Nell's help to grow a cannabis crop so she can earn enough money to move out of the estate and raise her unborn child somewhere safer.

Meanwhile, his best friend, Gem, finds himself in over his head when he begins to work as a drug dealer for Summerhouse kingpins Dushane and Sully. Gem is easily coerced and finds himself at the mercy of their trusted enforcer, Dris, who is ruthless and violent.

Dushane and Sully run the estate together with relative ease, but when Kamale, a rival drug dealer from London Fields, steals a large amount of their supply, they are forced to hunt down the thief before their supplier, Bobby Raikes, takes action. The urgency of the chase puts Dushane and Sully's partnership in jeopardy.

Series 2 (2013)

The second series was set one year after the events of the first series. After the police uncover a body, Dushane, Sully, and Dris are arrested. Dushane quickly realises that there is a snitch in their crew, and must deal with the repercussions. The snitch is revealed to be Michael, Dushane's favourite dealer, who was forced by the police to give information about Dushane.

Meanwhile, Sully is attempting to start up his own crew to rival Dushane's with his friend Mike, a borderline psychopathic ex-convict. When a deal with Dushane's Albanian business partners goes bad, he attempts to enlist Sully's help once more to take them out. He comes into contact with Jason, a neglected boy who is trying to survive in a world filled with drugs and murder.

Series 3 (2019)

The first series of the revival show takes place seven years after the original series. Dushane has fled to Jamaica, where he is getting by working in his cousin's car-rental shop. When he makes a business deal with imprisoned drug lord Sugar, he returns to London to sell Sugar's product and become Top Boy once again, with the help of Dris and Jaq, who were running Summerhouse while Dushane was away. However, a new crew from London Fields, headed by the ruthless Jamie, won't stand for Dushane stepping on their turf.

Since Dushane left for Jamaica, London has become more gentrified and cost of living has risen. He also comes home to learn that his sick mother is now under the care of Shelley, a young carer and single mother to an eight-year-old girl, who begins to form a strong relationship with Dushane.

Sully is in prison with Modie, a murderous drug dealer who ran the rival London Fields gang in Dushane and Sully's absence. An altercation between the two men when queuing up in the prison cafeteria escalates to the point that Sully throws boiling sugar water on Modie's face days before he is due to be released; this serves to make Sully an enemy of Modie, who seeks revenge on Sully when, later in the series, he eventually escapes prison with the help of Sully's cousin Jermaine, whom Sully had kidnapped in the previous series. When Sully is released, he reconnects with Jason and Gem to begin selling in Ramsgate. However, after Jason is killed in a house fire, Sully reluctantly reunites with Dushane and the two start doing business once again. Meanwhile, Dris, having suffered a stroke that has left him partially disabled, struggles with his responsibilities upon Dushane's return.

Jamie attempts to assert his dominance in the borough, driven to provide for his younger brothers, Aaron and Stefan, as their parents both developed cancer and died within days of each other, when Jamie was just 18-years-old. He starts business with an upper-class Irish drug supplier, Lizzie, and her husband, Jeffery, and his thirst for power and subsequent battles with Dushane's crew at Summerhouse serve as the main plot throughout this series and culminate in Dushane orchestrating Jamie being sent to prison after police are led to find a bag filled with weapons and drugs in the flat that Jamie lives in with his brothers.

Series 4 (2022)

The second series of the revival show takes place six months after the events of the last. Dushane wants to expand his empire beyond the streets by making huge investments in London and finding new connects in Spain and Morocco, which causes tensions between the community and his sick mother, who is now aware and ashamed of her son's business.

Jamie has been released from prison, and his gang begins to work with the Summerhouse gang. He attempts to reconnect with his younger brother, Stefan, following his friend Ats's death due to knife crime but is sent by Dushane to sort out a botched drug deal in Spain and Morocco.

Jaq, Dushane's new second-in-command following the death of Dris, tries to rescue her pregnant older sister Lauryn, who is in an abusive relationship with Liverpool-based weapons dealer Curtis.

Sully, suffering from PTSD as he comes to terms with murdering Dris and the death of his son figure and friend Jason, is suspicious about Jamie and Dushane doing business together. Meanwhile, Shelley and other local residents try to fight against Dushane's redevelopments for Summerhouse, while Shelley herself comes to terms with her dark past, which causes her to be blackmailed for aiding in the burial of her ex-boyfriend's murder victim.

Series 5 (2023)

The third series of the revival show takes place immediately after the previous series. After killing Jamie, Sully threatens to kill Dushane if he doesn't step back as the leader of the Summerhouse gang. Dushane reluctantly does so, and Sully becomes the leader, alongside his friend Junior, giving Dushane more time to focus on helping Shelley expand her business. Upon becoming leader, Sully is forced to form an uneasy alliance with Irish gang leader Jonny McGee and his uncle Tadgh, who killed the Moroccans.

Tormented by Jamie's death, Stefan has been moved to a care home and has been taken under the wing of Jamie's friend and fellow ZT member Si, who encourages Stefan to avenge his brother's death. Stefan refuses, in favour of beginning a relationship with Dris' daughter, Erin, who is now living with her mother and Dris' widowed girlfriend Mandy.

Dushane learns that Lizzie and her accountant friend, Lithe, has stolen £15 million from his account, putting him in a state of desperation and anger, to the point where he kills Lizzie's husband, Jeffrey, and snaps at Shelley, who subsequently breaks up with him due to his obsession with money and power. Dushane's failure to clean up after Jeffrey's murder puts him on the police's radar.

Meanwhile, upon giving birth to a baby boy, Lauryn suffers from post-natal depression, and eventually dies and drowns in the bath from a drug overdose. Heartbroken, Jaq becomes disillusioned with selling drugs, and with the help of Kieron, she decides to steal Sully's drugs to provide a better life for her girlfriends, Becks, and her newborn nephew.

The show ends with Sully killing Dushane, who stole Sully’s drugs from Jaq, in an attempt to pay for his illegal escape from the country. Stefan, having a change of heart and not choosing the life of crime, walks away from Sully after having him at gunpoint. The final scene is an unknown assailant killing Sully by shooting him in the head as he sits in his car in the carpark of the park after being confronted by Stefan.

Cast table

• An empty, grey cell indicates that the character was not in the series, or their presence in the series has not yet been confirmed.

Main

• Ashley Walters as Dushane Hill (series 1-5)
• Kane Robinson as Gerard "Sully" Sullivan (series 1-5)
• Shone Romulus as Dris Wright (series 1–3)
• Malcolm Kamulete as Ra'Nell Smith (series 1–2)
• Giacomo Mancini as Gemel “Gem” Mustapha (series 1–2; recurring series 3)
• Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Lisa Smith (series 1–2)
• Kierston Wareing as Heather (series 1)
• Nicholas Pinnock as Leon (series 1)
• Xavien Russell as Michael (series 1–2)
• Micheal Ward as Jamie Tovell (series 3–4)
• Jasmine Jobson as Jacqueline “Jaq” Lawrence (series 3–5)
• Simbi Ajikawo as Shelley (series 3-5)
• Hope Ikpoku Jnr. as Aaron Tovell, Jamie's middle brother (series 3–4)
• Araloyin Oshunremi as Stefan Tovell, Jamie's youngest brother (series 3–5)
• Keiyon Cook as Attica "Ats" Ayittey (series 3)
• Jolade Obasola as Amma Ayittey (series 3–4)
• Kadeem Ramsay as Kit, Jamie's best friend (series 3–4)
• Lisa Dwan as Lizzie Kilfauns (series 3-4)
• Saffron Hocking as Lauryn Lawrence, Jaq's sister (series 4–5; recurring series 3)
• NoLay as Mandy, Dris' girlfriend (series 5; recurring series 4; guest series 2)
• Adwoa Aboah as Becks, Jaq's girlfriend (series 5; recurring series 4)
• Joshua Blissett as Kieron Palmer (series 5; recurring 3-4)
• Savanah Graham as Erin Wright, Dris & Mandy's daughter and Stefan's girlfriend (series 5; recurring series 3)
• Barry Keoghan as Jonny McGee

(series 5; main 5)

• Brian Gleason as Tadhg McGee

(series 5; recurring 5)

Recurring

Series 1 (2011)

Series 2 (2013)

Series 3 (2019)

Series 4 (2022)

Series 5 (2023)

Development

Top Boy was written and created by Belfast born novelist Ronan Bennett, who also produced the series through his production company Eastern Partisan. Bennett was inspired to write the series after he saw a twelve-year-old boy dealing drugs at his local Tesco supermarket in Hackney. Bennett, assisted by his friend Gerry Jackson, interviewed several drug dealers in the area about their lifestyle in order to depict a sense of realism. Jackson was later credited as a story consultant on the series.

The series pilot was originally commissioned by the BBC but the head of drama was too critical about the strong violence and profanity in the script. Eventually, Bennett met with producers Charles Steel and Alasdair Flind of Cowboy Films and in July 2010, it was announced that the series had been commissioned by Channel 4 as a four-part drama.

Casting

The series cast UK rappers, along with seasoned and newcoming acting talent. So Solid Crew rapper turned actor Ashley Walters and British rapper Kane Robinson were cast as lead characters Dushane and Sully, respectively. Following his breakthrough performance in the 2004 film Bullet Boy, Walters turned down several roles in urban films and TV shows but he chose to audition for Top Boy because of its realistic characterization. The character of Sully was written as an Asian drug dealer, but casting director Des Hamilton, director Yann Demange, and Bennett were all impressed with Robinson's chemistry test with Walters and rewrote the character for Robinson.

Walters and Robinson led the series alongside other rappers, including Scorcher as London Fields gang leader Kamale. UK rappers Giggs and Sway make cameo appearances in the first series. The first series also featured Shone Romolus as Dris, Dushane and Sully's trusted enforcer; newcomers Malcolm Kamulete and Giacomo Mancini as best friends Ra'Nell and Gem; Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Ra'Nell's mum Lisa; Nicholas Pinnock as Leon, Lisa's friend and a father figure to Ra'Nell; Kierston Wareing as Lisa's pregnant friend Heather; Benedict Wong as cannabis dealer Vincent; and Geoff Bell as drug lord Bobby Raikes. The series also featured a then-eighteen-year-old Letitia Wright as Chantelle, a member of the Summerhouse gang and Gem's love interest.

The second series features the reprisals of Walters, Robinson, Romolus, Kamulete, Mancini, Duncan-Brewster, and Wong with new additions including rapper Bashy as Jermaine, Sully's cousin; Lorraine Burroughs as Rhianna Parkes, Dushane's lawyer; Paul Anderson as Mike, Sully's new business partner; Nabil Elouahabi as Babrak Mustapha, Gem's father; Ricky Smarts as Jason, Sully's friend and son figure; and Michaela Coel as Kayla Thomas, a woman who was in contact with Kamale.

In April 2019, following the series' revival by Netflix, it was announced that Micheal Ward would join the cast as the new London Fields leader Jamie. He previously auditioned to play Jamie's younger brother Aaron. Rappers Dave and Little Simz were cast as Modie and Shelly, respectively. New additions to the third and fourth series include Jasmine Jobson, Hope Ikpoku Jr., Araloyin Oshunremi, Keiyon Cook, Jolade Obasola, Kadeem Ramsay, Lisa Dwan, Joshua Blisset, Saffron Hocking and Adwoa Aboah.

Filming locations

The Heygate Estate and Loughborough Estate, both in South London, were used as the Summerhouse Estate during the first two series. Production visited several locations in Kent for the third series. Filming took place in Margate at Walpole Bay and Fulsam Rock Beach and nearby streets including Athelstan Road. Production also visited Ramsgate, where they filmed at Jacob's Ladder, outside the Rose of England pub on the High Street and Ramsgate Station. Gordon Place in Gravesend doubles as the fictional Summerhouse Estate throughout the series.^[7]

For the third and fourth series, the Samuda Estate on the Isle of Dogs and the De Beauvoir Estate in the London Borough of Hackney double as the Summerhouse Estate. The Dockside Outlet Shopping Centre in Chatham, Kent features in Series 4 Episode 5, doubling as a shopping mall in Liverpool.^[7]

With the series being set in Hackney much of the filming took place in the borough in areas including Dalston,Haggerston and London Fields.^[8] Legal scenes in series 4 were filmed in the old Blackfriars Crown Court.^[9]

Music

The original score for the series was composed by Brian Eno and Michael Asante. In addition to its original music, Top Boy features grime, hip-hop and R&B from artists including Ghostpoet, AJ Tracey, Giggs, Central Cee, Roots Manuva, Burna Boy and J Hus.

On 13 September 2019, an original soundtrack for the series, titled Top Boy (A Selection of Music Inspired by the Series), was released by OVO Sound and Warner to accommodate with the release of the third series.^[10][11] The soundtrack includes appearances from OVO's Drake, Baka Not Nice, and Popcaan and British artists AJ Tracey, Avelino, Dave, Fredo, Ghetts, Headie One, Little Simz, M Huncho, Nafe Smallz, Central Cee and SL.^[12][13]

Cancellation and revival series

Despite its successful ratings and critical acclaim, in 2014, it was announced by Walters that Channel 4 had cancelled the series after two series.^[14] Speaking in 2019, Bennett expressed his disappointment about the abrupt cancellation, feeling that Channel 4 cancelling the series was a "smack in the face to the community".

Around the time of the show's cancellation, Canadian rapper Drake became a fan of the series after watching it in parts on YouTube and posted screenshots of the series on his social media. After learning that a third series was cancelled, Drake met with Walters and the series' producers about reviving the series. Drake bought the rights to the series and pitched it to Netflix, who greenlit the third series in November 2017, with Drake serving as executive producer and most of the original cast and crew reprising their roles. The third series was filmed from July 2018 to February 2019 and was released on 13 September 2019, the first series on Netflix, consisting of ten episodes.

In January 2020, the series was renewed for a second series on Netflix (fourth series overall), with filming set to start in the spring of that year. However, due to COVID-19, filming was delayed and started in late November/early December. The series was released on Netflix on 18 March 2022, consisting of eight episodes.

In March 2022, shortly after the debut of the following series, it was announced that the series was renewed for a third series on Netflix (fifth series overall), which was announced as the final series of the series. Filming began in July 2022.

Critical reception and viewership

Top Boy received positive feedback from critics. The first two series premiered with 1 million viewers and managed to maintain its audience share over the course of its two-year run.^[15] Tom Sutcliffe, writing in the Independent, said, "The drama involved virtually no preaching at all, but a sense of morality was everywhere, as bad conscience flickered in the face of the toughest characters and grief hit the culpable and the blameless alike. Best of all, it always found a little time for something other than plot, whether it was banter on stairwells or the melancholy beauty of the city at night. Seriously good television."^[16]

The Netflix revival series was met with greater acclaim for its performances, emotional depth, soundtrack, writing, and bigger scope and scale. Rebecca Nicholson, writing in the Guardian, described the third series as "more violent, more gripping and more shocking than ever". Ellen E Jones, also of the Guardian, praised the fourth series, writing that the series "always leaves you guessing".^[17]